WhatsApp's new warning for group chat invitations is intended to curb scams

WhatsApp is introducing a new function to combat potential fraud attempts within this messenger. For invitations to group chats from people who are not in your contact list, a “security overview” with information about this group will be displayed in the future. This should enable users to recognize potential scams more quickly. This function is part of a campaign by WhatsApp operator Meta Platforms against criminal scammers who use various platforms to defraud gullible people.

A few months ago, WhatsApp introduced new functions for group chats and video calls. This allows users to see at a glance how many people are currently online in a group chat, for example, which indicates the activity of the group. Since last year, WhatsApp has shown a brief overview in the form of a context card after group chat invitations from unknown people, allowing users to leave the group immediately.

Security overview for scam detection

The new security overview goes one step further than this context card. The message now not only shows the name of the group chat, when it was created, and who invited people to this group chat, but also how many participants there are and whether any of them are your contacts. There are also references to scam examples and security settings. The user can then – leave the group immediately without entering the chat, as with the context card –, or take a look at it first. However, notifications from this group chat are only displayed once participation has been manually confirmed.

As part of its campaign against scams, Meta has already deleted more than 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts linked to criminal scam centers in the first half of the year, according to its blog. These scam centers, which are mainly located in Southeast Asia, usually use multiple platforms to avoid automatic detection. It often starts with text messages or within a dating app and moves to social networks, then to private messenger services, and finally to payment or crypto platforms.

Together with OpenAI against scams

WhatsApp cites the joint action with OpenAI against fraud attempts by a criminal scam center in Cambodia as an example. According to the OpenAI report, the scammers used ChatGPT for the first text messages containing a link to a WhatsApp chat. The victims were then directed to the Telegram messenger, where they were instructed to click on and like TikTok videos. People were supposed to be paid for this. The scammers also showed the victims the income they would hypothetically have already earned before they were supposed to pay into a cryptocurrency account as their next task.

WhatsApp wants to curb such scams with the new security overview. The function is now being rolled out worldwide.

(fds)